Australia is disappointed with the Trump administration’s decision to impose a higher tariff on the nation’s exports, rebuffing the claim Canberra is not doing enough to stop forced labour.
The US has confirmed a 12.5 per cent tariff will come into force on Australian exports from Friday afternoon (AEST).
This replaces the existing 10 per cent baseline levy, which will expire at the same time.
Tariffs are being imposed on 60 economies in total for what the Trump administration claims is in response for their failure to effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labour.
“President Trump recognises that decades of moral suasion have not eradicated forced labour from global supply chains,” a statement from the US trade representative reads.
“The United States has had a forced labour import ban for nearly a century, and rigorously enforces it; it’s well past time for our trading partners to do the same.”
Asked whether the Australian government was disappointed with the decision, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said it was.
“We don’t want to see increases in tariffs. We want to see freer trade and more trade flows between Australia and the United States,” he told ABC’s Radio National on Friday.
“Grounding this on the basis of forced labour … (it is) definitely something which needs to be combated around the world.
“So we support that objective, but we have laws which are amongst the strongest in the world, and we’ve been making that point to the Trump administration.”
The federal government announced earlier in July it would strengthen anti-slavery laws with harsher penalties.
Under new changes, companies with an annual revenue of more than $100 million will be subject to a new criminal offence in addition to a new civil penalty that will be added to the existing Modern Slavery Act, which was last updated in 2018.
An estimated 50 million people across the world are enslaved, according to the Global Slavery Index.
This includes people who are trafficked and subject to forced labour.
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